Kristien Hemmerechts

Last updated
Kristien Hemmerechts
KristienHemmerechts-Alken2013.png
Kristien Hemmerechts (2013)
Born (1955-08-27) 27 August 1955 (age 66)
NationalityBelgian
Occupationwriter

Kristien Hemmerechts (born 27 August 1955) is a Belgian writer.

Contents

Life

Kristien Hemmerechts studied Germanic philology at the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL). Afterwards, she studied literary science in Amsterdam for a year. In Amsterdam she met her first husband—who was British—with whom she married in 1978. They moved out to London where Hemmerechts worked as a typist. In 1979 they were in charge of a youth hostel in Dover. After a half year, they left Dover and they started traveling in South America for another half year. When they returned, they settled in Brussels where Hemmerechts took upon a mandate at the KUB as an instructor of English.

In 1981 Hemmerechts gave birth to a daughter, named Katherine. Two sons followed shortly after that, but both boys died from Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

In 1986 she was granted a PhD for her dissertation A Plausible Story and a Plausible Way of Telling It: A structuralist analysis of Jean Rhys's novels.

In 1987 she divorced her husband. A year later she met the Flemish writer and poet Herman de Coninck with whom she lived in Berchem, Antwerp. In 1992 they got married. Five years later, in 1997, Herman de Coninck died from a heart failure in Lisbon, Portugal. Hemmerechts reported about this loss in the biographical Taal Zonder Mij (1998) which also contains some analyses of de Coninck's poetry.

In 2007, Kristien Hemmerechts married Bart Castelein, with whom she has had a relationship since 1999. Until this day they haven't lived together, deciding for separate homes.

Hemmerechts currently is a professor in English literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Brussel (KUB), and an instructor of Creative Writing at the Herman Teirlinck Instituut in Antwerp.

Work

Kristien Hemmerechts published her debut in 1986 with the collection First Fictions, Introduction 9 which was written in English. Her first novel Een Zuil van Zout was published in 1987. It received the Prijs van de provincie Brabant. In 1990 she received the prestigious Vlaamse driejaarlijkse Staatsprijs voor proza. A recurring theme in Hemmerechts' work is man's incapability to give direction in life. Characters are faced with the incapability of communicating with others which leads to the inability of creating meaningful human relationships. Causes are to be sought in feelings of estrangement from the world and the self, loneliness and guilt.

In a lot of her work, Hemmerechts depicts sexuality from a female point of view. Explicit scenes are the foundation of accusations that say Kristien Hemmerechts deliberately wants to provoke her readers. Her style is a distant one that registers accounts and thought. She shows rather than participates as a narrator in her story lines.

Bibliography

Sources

Related Research Articles

Herman Brusselmans Belgian novelist

Herman Frans Martha Brusselmans is a Belgian novelist, poet, playwright and columnist. He lives in Ghent. He is one of the best-selling authors in Flanders, but controversial at the same time for his profane language and offensive comedy.

Flemish Diamond

The Flemish Diamond is the Flemish reference to a network of four metropolitan areas in Belgium, three of which are in the central provinces of Flanders, together with the Brussels Capital Region. It consists of four agglomerations which form the four corners of an abstract diamond shape: Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven. Over five million people live in this area, with a population density of about 600 per square kilometre in 2002.

Renate Dorrestein

Renate Maria Dorrestein was a Dutch writer, journalist and feminist. She started working as a junior journalist for the Dutch magazines Libelle and Panorama. During the period 1977 - 1982 she published in Het Parool, Viva, Onkruid and Opzij. Dorrestein published her first novel (Buitenstaanders) in 1983. Her sister's suicide had a great influence on her books. Dorrestein won the Annie Romein prize in 1993 for her complete body of work. A lot of Dorrestein's books were translated, and they were sold in 14 countries.

Herman de Coninck was a Belgian poet, essayist, journalist and publisher.

Maria, Baroness Rosseels, also known with her pen name "E. M. Vervliet", was a Belgian Catholic writer.

Herman Teirlinck Belgian writer

Herman Louis Cesar Teirlinck was a Belgian writer. He was the fifth child and only son of Isidoor Teirlinck and Oda van Nieuwenhove, who were both teachers in Brussels. As a child, he had frail health and spent much of his time at the countryside in Zegelsem, with his paternal grandparents. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.

Saskia De Coster Belgian writer

Saskia De Coster is a Belgian writer. Her work has been published in literary magazines and she also writes screenplays and novels. De Coster has also been cited as an up-and-coming author. Saskia de Coster has published six books as of 19 April 2013.

Paul de Wispelaere Flemish writer

Paul de Wispelaere was a Flemish writer.

Geert van Istendael

Geert van Istendael is the pseudonym of Geert Maria Mauritius Julianus Vanistendael, a Belgian writer, poet and essayist. He studied sociology and philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. From 1987 until 1993, he worked as a journalist for the Belgian National Television and since 1993 he became a full-time writer. He is a brother of Frans Vanistendael. He is a supporter of Orangism and a Pan-Netherlands.

Michiel van Kempen

Michaël Henricus Gertrudis (Michiel) van Kempen is a Dutch writer, art historian and literary critic. He has written novels, short stories, essays, travel literature and scenarios. He was the compiler of a huge range of anthologies of Dutch-Caribbean literature and wrote an extensive history of the literature of Suriname, in two volumes.

The Fernand Collin Prize for Law was named after Fernand Collin. It is awarded to a scientist who makes a significant Dutch-language contribution to law in Belgium. In 1972 it was awarded to an economist.

Sybren Polet Dutch writer and poet

Sybe Minnema, known by his pen name Sybren Polet, was a Dutch prose writer and poet. He won numerous awards, among them the 2003 Constantijn Huygens Prize.

Henriette Roland Holst

Henriette Goverdine Anna "Jet" Roland Holst-van der Schalk (1869–1952) was a Dutch poet and communist. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Tonnus Oosterhoff Dutch poet and writer

Tonnus Oosterhoff is a Dutch poet and writer.

The Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek is a Dutch organization that includes representatives of bookstores and publishers, whose goal is to promote Dutch literature.

Wilhelmina (Ineke) van Wetering was a Dutch anthropologist and Surinamist. She was born on 17 October 1934 in the Dutch city of Hilversum. When she was 10 years old, her father (ironmonger) had been executed by firing squad in the Second world war because of participating in an illegal group who provided hiding places for people who were prosecuted by the Nazi-German army. She finished her secondary school in 1955, when she began her study of sociology at the University of Amsterdam. In her later career she continued her work at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Anet Bleich

Anet Bleich is a Dutch journalist, political commentator, author, columnist and writer.

Anna Christina Witmond-Berkhout was a Dutch children's writer, best known under her pseudonym Tine van Berken. She also wrote adult books under the name Anna Koubert.

Jos van Manen Pieters Dutch writer

Jos van Manen Pieters was a Dutch writer. She wan the Athos Award in 1965.

Willy Corsari Dutch novellist and actor

Willy Corsari was the stage name and pen name of Wilhelmina Angela Schmidt, a Dutch actor, author and composer. She is noted for her detective fiction and has been termed the Dutch Agatha Christie. Born in Jette, a municipality of Brussels, the daughter of a singer and a musician, she spent an itinerant childhood living in the Dutch East Indies, Germany and the Netherlands. Corsari developed as a writer at an early age, being first published at age ten. In 1914, she had her musical debut at the cabaret De Kattebel, performing on stage until 1932. At the same time, she developed her writing career. In 1927, she published her first three books, including Misdaad zonder Fouten. Many more followed. She also produced plays for the stage and radio, and, in 1972 an album of songs that she wrote and composed entitled Liedjes in de Schemer. During the Second World War, she gave a German deserter refuge and was consequentially imprisoned in Scheveningen, although released due to insufficient evidence. After the war, continued to publish and reached a peak in 1958 with over 200,000 copies of her omnibus sold in a year. She continued to write, producing Spelen met de dood in 1983, although by that time her output had reduced to very low levels. She was made a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1990 and died in Amstelveen in 1998.